§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

§ Syndicate

The View From 1776

What’s Next, Kristalnacht?

The Kerry campaign’s response to charges by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth calls to mind the tactics of their fellow socialists in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

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It stretches the point to say that Senator Kerry’s handling of allegations by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group is the same as Hitler’s quashing public discourse in Germany during the 1930s. But the parallels are there.

To date, rather than answer the allegations with specific evidence, the Kerry campaign has repeatedly branded them as lies and challenged the integrity and honesty of the veterans in the Swift Boat group. Aiming to silence the criticism, Kerry campaign officials have made semi-threatening gestures in the direction of TV stations running the Swift Boat ads, and towards the publisher and bookstores selling the best-seller, “Unfit For Command.”

A few examples:

Kerry seeks to scuttle vets’ ads
By Stephen Dinan and Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published August 21, 2004
John Kerry filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission yesterday charging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has violated campaign finance laws…..

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign and a liberal watchdog group launched attacks on Friday to either ban Unfit for Command or restrict sales of the book, which the group’s president called “the Hitler Diaries of this political season.”

In an article entitled “Unfit for Bookstores,” Eric Boehlert of Salon.com reported that a representative of the Kerry campaign had said Regnery Publishing, which printed Unfit for Command , is retailing a hoax and should consider withdrawing it from bookstores.

“No publisher should want to be selling books with proven falsehoods in them, especially falsehoods that are meant to smear the military service of an American veteran,” said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton. “If I were them, I’d be ducking under my desk wondering what to do. This is a serious problem.”

Manchester (NH) Union-Leader
Editorial 8/22/04

Intimidation and speech:
Who is trying to silence whom?

PREPARING to secure the Republican National Convention in New York City this week, the FBI interviewed a small number of radicals it suspected of plotting to firebomb media vehicles during the convention. The left attacked, saying the FBI was trying to intimidate protesters into staying home.

Of course, if bombs go off during the convention, the left will fault the FBI (and President Bush) for not doing its job, which the left wants to prevent it from doing.

Meanwhile, John Kerry is trying to get bookstores to stop carrying ?Unfit for Command,? the best-selling book in which veterans challenge Kerry?s war record. So, where is the left-wing outrage over Kerry?s attack on free speech?

``Over the last week or so, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been attacking me. Of course, this group isn’t interested in the truth—and they’re not telling the truth,’’ Kerry said. ``Here’s what you really need to know about them—they’re funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They’re a front for the Bush campaign.’’

Kerry’s evidence? Bob Perry, who has given to given to multiple Republican causes and campaigns (including campaigns for Bush), is the Swiftboat Vet’s largest donor , contributing $100,000.

Dirty doings
Published August 21, 2004
??Individual donors have also thrown their weight behind Mr. Kerry. Billionaire George Soros, for example, has poured $12.6 million thus far into various 527 groups seeking the defeat of Mr. Bush, including $2.5 million to Moveon.org and $5 million to America Coming Together. Peter Lewis, another prolific donor, has thrown $2,995,000 to America Coming Together and $2.5 million to Moveon.org. Stephen Bing, a controversial figure from Shangri-La Entertainment, has donated almost $7 million to America Coming Together and to the Media Fund. So when it comes to surrogates doing the “dirty work,” Mr. Kerry’s allies outraise Mr. Bush’s hands down. But will Mr. Kerry condemn the “dirty work” of Moveon.org or America Coming Together? We won’t hold our breath.

What are we to make of this?

The point to be made does not apply to Senator Kerry alone. The point rather is that the fundamental nature of liberal-socialism necessitates such tactics of intimidation to silence free speech.

Christian and religious Jewish nominees for the Federal judiciary must be blocked, because they oppose liberalism’s ideology of social justice and personal hedonism. Political opponents must be denounced as liars.

In his rise to power between 1928 and 1933, Adolph Hitler’s National Socialist party (the Nazis) employed strong-arm tactics to intimidate his opponents and to control public opinion.

One of the most effective Nazi tactics became known as the Big Lie. To counter opponents’ charges, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ignored the specifics of opponents’ charges and branded the protesters as liars. He proved that a big enough lie, repeated often enough, can effectively manipulate public opinion.

Nazis used public book burnings as party rallies. Any works by Jewish writers, along with works expressing views that the Nazis objected to, were banned, and from time to time, burned in big nighttime pep meetings.

These events culminated with Kristalnacht (“The Night of the Broken Glass”) in November 1938. Nazis and others marched through the streets smashing the windows of Jewish businesses and looting them. In addition to throwing a little red meat to his followers, Hitler delivered an unmistakable message: public expression of opinion was to be exclusively the Nazi view. Anyone challenging Nazi propaganda would be silenced.

Are we next to see an American version of Kristalnacht, with anti-American college students roaming the streets and smashing the windows of bookstores that dare to sell “Unfit for Command?”

That may sound far-fetched, but remember that liberal students frequently steal and destroy whole editions of conservative student newspapers, while college administrators opine that such foreclosing of conservative speech is merely an expression of liberals’ free speech.

Remember also that in 1999 liberals disrupted the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle by smashing store fronts, overturning and burning automobiles, and attacking police. President Clinton, needless to say, did not condemn these liberal terror tactics. He told the press that he could understand and sympathize with the aims of the rioters.

Liberalism’s collectivized welfare state is the opposite of the individual economic freedoms for which the colonists fought in 1776. Their ideology having no legitimacy in American history, liberal-socialists have no choice but to use strong-arm tactics, in the media, in our schools, in Congress, and in the judiciary. The 1776 Judeo-Christian principles of personal morality and individual responsibility stand in the way of their ideology and must be smashed.

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